Heartbreak for Odisha techies: Special job fair postponed to Nov-Dec

Pouring cold water on the aspirations of thousands of technical, management and pharmacy graduates in the state, the Employment and Technical Education and Training (ET&T) department of the Odisha government today decided to postpone the four-day special recruitment drive scheduled to be held here from September 17.

Picture Courtesy: nisharaghavan.com

Though there was no formal announcement about the postponement, sources in the department confirmed that a decision to defer the job fair had indeed been taken at a high level meeting chaired by ET & T minister Sanjay Dasburma here today.

The recruitment drive would now be held in November-December, sources in the department told OST.

The deferment has been forced as much by the overwhelming response of the students as by the less than enthusiastic response of the companies, the sources said. A staggering 35, 000 candidates had already registered themselves for the fair at last count notwithstanding the numerous problems faced in accessing the designated website.

According to sources, the job fair had to be deferred as the ill prepared department never expected such an overwhelming response from the students, who have been thronging the website to register their names to participate in the recruitment drive.

But with thousands of technical degree holders in desperate search for jobs, it is difficult to understand how the authorities failed to foresee the rush to register for the fair. “They should have seen it coming. If they did not, it means they have no idea of the ground realities,” said someone closely involved with the exercise.

Asked about the reasons for the postponement at this late stage, when the fair is just a week away, an official came up with this lame explanation. “Four days’ time would not be enough for the large number of candidates registering. In any case, the proposed venue Kalinga Stadium cannot accommodate all of them. A large place is required to conduct the job fair. We would decide on it at a later date.”

If the Kalinga Stadium is not big enough to hold the event, one wonders where on earth can the government find a larger venue that would accommodate all the aspirants, unless of course it is planning to hold it at some place outside Bhubaneswar.

The real reason for the deferment, according to sources, is the lack of interest among companies to participate in the recruitment drive. Only a handful of them have evinced interest in taking part so far. The government backed out because it did not want to cut a sorry figure and create a situation where there are too many aspirants chasing too few jobs.

The wrath that such a situation is sure to cause in aspirants, whose expectations had been raised sky high following the bragging by the government that 300 ‘top notch’ companies would participate in the fair, is another reason that forced the department to retrace its steps, the sources said.

Despite repeated attempts by OST, the minister, the secretary or the BPUT vice chancellor were not available for comments on the last minute deferment.

B Tech, M Tech, MCA, MBA and Pharmacy graduates were to participate in the job fair.

8 COMMENTS

I am from Odisha. I can tell you how badly this government has failed in creating jobs, skilled or unskilled. They are only able to win elections by targeting people for vote bank politics. We have few things better here. This just shows how much degree students are suffering here. In other states they have a preference for regional candidates, but it is the opposite here. Even the colleges are having vacant seats. Why ? Because there are no jobs for the passouts. The situation will not improve unless this govt focuses on employment rather than vote bank politics and the schemes for the so-called poor aimed at garnering votes.

very much heart breaking..but if it happens in future ..then do we have to re-register ??? Or not ? And if a student who was not able to register before the last deadline would get a chance to register now or not??

I have been appreciating the state governement like most of the young minds since some years.
Now I feel, the state Goverment is so helpless that it is not able to conduct a job fair even properly and comes up with the worst website we have ever seen.

Not only this, most of the exams interviews like ASO and many others are still pending. If someone asks for the reason they always blame each other or avoid these kind of questions.

It may be observed , there is no accountability nor seriousness. There’s lack of proper assessment, lack of dedication and lack of seriousness.
Do the government and politicians really understand and feel, how much people suffer for their negligence and poor assessment ?
About the job fair, we believed, anyhow something good is going to happen.

But when I came across the website, suddenly, I had doubts about the job fair.It was hard to believe that it would ever be going to happen in Odisha. And finally before 5 days before the event, one got the news that it may not be conducted in the given time. Do they really feel shame on their failure and for playing with the hopes of candidates ?

Want to mention one more thing: I am waiting for the reaction of the other political parties. They will shout about the govt’s big failure, but they have done nothing during their term and have no interest in the people. They are just looking for a chance to jump into the middle to take the advantage.

One feels sad and worried when we have like zero opportunity to get a job in our own state. Most of us are running to different states for job. Is it not a big issue ? Like good Indian brains are working for USA, the same good brains of Odisha are working for other states.

All are saying Odisha is poor state and that we need to beg from the Centre. But the truth is, my state is poor because of lack of political will, dedication, proper administration and lack of accountibilty in most of the sectors.

I really dont know how much of what I have said is correct, but it’s my own feelings. Dont make it an issue.

This is not happening at all, 1st of all “U”( authorities of the ET&T) play the music and when people are interested to dance with the music, “U” turned it off to face the music???
And this way “U” earned hell lot of money just by ensuring minimum amount to be Rs.100, and of course with due course of time no one will remember about this scam of earning money this way.

People like me, who are staying outside Odisha, might have already booked the railway tickets n other arrangements. Who would refund it ?

Yes Arpita, it’s true. I also cancelled my tickets and all arrangements were ruined because of this and i lost more than 700/-. they should return my money. i wish i can file an FIR against the whole group of people involved.

They wasted our money, time, smashed our hopes and God knows whether they can even make it happen in Nov-Dec or not. May be someone will file a case in the court for some reason and again it will be stopped. Really, we are being fooled by the the ET&T.
They had no planning, no assessment , no proper effort or estimation. They just declared a big job fair. within a short period and they failed badly. The ET & T, even the state Govt is not trustworthy anymore.

WHO ARE ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE FAILURE TO HOLD JOB FAIR & LOSSES TO 35000 HIGHLY EDUCATED UNEMPLOYED YOUTH OF ODISHA ?
OUR STATE GOVT.SHOULD CREATE EMPLOYMENT FOR YOUTH OF ODISHA IN ALL PUBLIC & PRIVATE SECTORS IN ODISHA! IF GOVT. FAILS THEN YOUTH OF ODISHA SHOULD UNITE FOR THEIR RIGHTS!
LET EACH EDUCATED YOUTH OF ODISHA RAISE HIS/ HER VOICE IN WRITING TO OUR GOVT THROUGH NEWSPAPERS !
OUR HON”BLE MINISTERS, MLAS AND HIGH OFFICIALS IN GOVT. MUST ACT WITH A WILL!